GEORGE THE THIRD
there, spying with one hand and mopping his eyes with the other.
Then returned the fear of catching cold; and the Duke of Cumber-
land, who was sinking with heat, felt himself weighed down, and
turning round, found it was the Duke of Newcastle standing upon
his train to avoid the chill of the marble. It was very theatric to
look down into the vault,'where the coffin lay attended by mourners
with lights.
# # #
ON NOVEMBER i8TH George III met his first Parliament. His
Whig Ministers sat uneasily in their seats. The Speech from the
Throne, originally drafted by Hardwicke and transmitted to the
King by Newcastle, had been tampered with. In his own
handwriting the King had set down the following interpolation:
Born and educated in this country I glory in the name of Britain;
and the peculiar happiness of my people will ever consist in pro-
moting the welfare of a people, whose loyalty and warm affection
to me I consider the greatest and most permanent security to my
throne.
Newcasde recognized in an instant Bute's hand in those words.
To Hardwicke he said, c it denotes the author to all the world/
He toyed with the idea of having them challenged, in debate,
but in the end he allowed them to pass, and felt very uncomfort-
able about it all. It was obvious that the new King was shaking
off the fetters of constitutional practice as defined by the Whigs:
in the days of his grandfather and great-grandfather there had
been no attempt to tamper with the contents of the Speeches
from the Throne as prepared by the Administration. The great
Whig political e bosses * had cracked their whips like circus
masters, and the King had popped on to his little tub, said his
piece in atrocious English, and then withdrawn from the arena.
But the business of Parliament proceeded smoothly enough.
The references to * Mr Pitt's War ' were in the best Pitt tradition :
it would be prosecuted relentlessly until c a safe and honourable
peace * could be obtained, and the murmurs of those backbenchers
who were already beginning to think that the time had long
since come for peacemaking were smothered by the rounds of
applause which greeted the young King's debut as a politician.
General satisfaction, however, was displayed at the manner in
which the King had voluntarily consented to allow parliament
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